BookShark

Tag: homeschooling help

  • How to Find Audiobooks for BookShark Curriculum

    Many BookShark parents love to outsource some of the scheduled reading aloud to audiobooks. This hack gives them a bit more time, saves their voice, and even allows the entire family to enjoy the listening experience together while traveling or doing chores.

    Another big use of audiobooks in homeschooling is by children who struggle with reading independently. Whether it’s due to dyslexia or just learning at a slower pace, these students benefit from hearing their Readers delivered in audiobook form. 

    Due to licensing challenges, BookShark itself does not provide audiobooks alongside its literature-based curriculum. But with a touch of resourcefulness, you can piece together what you need. Here are our recommendations to get you started with your search of audiobooks for BookShark. 

    1. Free Audiobooks

    The apps below are available for free through most libraries. These three apps are always our first stop when hunting for a particular title in audiobook form. Much like a library book, you have a limited time to listen but can always renew. Check with your local library to see what’s provided with your membership or library card.

    1. Hoopla
    2. Libby
    3. Overdrive

    2. New Releases and Subscriptions

    Sometimes there’s a new book out and we just can’t wait for it to be offered at our library. Or maybe we want the option of listening to a book over and over without having to return it. In that case, we need a paid subscription. 

    1. Audible
    2. Kindle Audio Books
    3. Epic

    I also like the feature in these apps that allows students to choose if they want to read or be read to. 

    3. Ebook Readers 

    There are also a few apps that read ebooks to you. These options are wonderful if you’re looking to help your child become a fluent independent reader since your child can follow along visually with the audio. 

    1. Speechify
    2. ReadAloud
    3. Voice Aloud Reader
    4. Bookshare® According to its website “is available only for individuals who have a qualifying reading or perceptual disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability that affects their ability to read printed works.” 

    My children both love audiobooks. Many a night they have fallen asleep listening to a favorite story. We also love to listen to books on car rides.

    Some readers also do a better job understanding what they are reading when they can hear it. As a teacher who has taught many students with dyslexia and other learning differences, I found this to be true again and again. While younger students might enjoy being read aloud to, I’ve also found older students often like the autonomy an audiobook gives them. 

    Audiobooks do not have to replace the books in our homeschool curriculum, but they can be a wonderful addition, and for some students work even better than a physical book. Try using audiobooks in conjunction with your BookShark Readers or Read-Alouds or use audiobooks when you’re in the car. They make for a wonderful start and end to the day as well. Audiobooks encourage even more reading in our homeschool days! There are no drawbacks when it comes to more great books! 

    About the Author

    Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.

    Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.

  • How to Schedule Your Homeschool Day

    How to Schedule Your Homeschool Day

    Homeschool scheduling is about finding your starting point and matching your family’s own groove. For example, when my boys were preschoolers and toddlers, my goal for the day was to shower and have some meaningful reading activities for my oldest son. Insanity was thinking I had to get my homeschool started at 8:00 a.m. when there was no need to. Fast forward to the middle and high school years. My sons now start their homeschool day closer to 8:30 a.m., independent of me.  

    The key to breathing sweet homeschool scheduling into your day is to begin with a set of guidelines that you can actually follow—ones that fit your family’s groove. We don’t need one more thing to stress us out if we are already struggling with homeschool scheduling, so look at these easy starting points below.  

    Analyze Your Family’s Routine and Daily Flow

    For example, if you have a younger household, your day will start earlier. When my household was younger, some days I could start school by about 7:00 a.m., stop for nap time, and then pick up again with a few more activities. Other days were helter-skelter.  

    Setting a dogmatic time to start our homeschool day only added to my aggravation because there was very little I could control when my children were preschoolers. Later, I understood that because my children were so young, I had to have a tentative game plan and find flexibility so that I could accommodate my family’s needs.  

    However, older children tend to thrive with routine and sameness even though we may not as adults.  

    Find Balance

    If you are not a morning person, then give yourself another half hour or so in the morning before you tackle your assignments in the Instructor’s Guide. However, if your children are morning people and they can start independently of you, then set the schedule to accommodate their desire to start early.  

    Think About the End of the Day

    When does your homeschool day end? Though learning and living naturally flow in our day, and sometimes it’s hard to see the difference between the two, we still want to schedule an ending to our day.   Through the years, I have heard of homeschoolers who homeschool for eight hours or more. I am shocked.  

    Our job as homeschool educators is not really very different from having a full time job. We need to have an ending to our day because homeschool burnout may loom ahead if we don’t.  

    During the younger years when there is not much difference between playing and learning, having an ending time is not as important. However, as your children approach the middle and high school years and you are teaching them to stick to a schedule and how to balance their time, it becomes critical.  

    Avoid Hour-by-hour Homeschool Planning

    When you are struggling with homeschool scheduling, avoid hour-by-hour planning and instead to plan bigger chunks of time.   Getting out your daily planner and setting aside 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for homeschool is doable, flexible, and gets your feet on the road to homeschool organization.  

    Next, noting the hours 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. for house chores is pretty flexible too. Instead of chaining you to a homeschool schedule that might not work for you or that may be too specific right now, start with scheduling broad zones of time.  

    As you fine tune your homeschool schedule to fit your family’s rhythm, then you can fill in with hour by hour chores, academic subjects, and other activities you have planned.  

    The simple truth is that homeschooling requires time and a schedule that fits your family as your children grow. Fitting your family’s groove at the present moment, having an ending to your homeschool day, and planning in blocks of time are the beginnings of homeschooling scheduling success.   w out the topics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it. 

    About the Author

    Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and is getting ready to graduate her next son. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lapbooks and homeschooling how tos. She can’t sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.